The present invention is directed to a weight compensation device or counterbalance device for a height-adjustable apparatus or device that is connected to a flexible supply line conducted to the mounted device from above. The compensation or counterbalancing device comprises a cable drum that accepts a first carrying cable loaded with the height-adjustable device and that is loaded by a force directed opposite to the weight of the height-adjustable mounted device.
Weight compensation devices or counterbalance devices are utilized in many height-adjustable devices or apparatuses so that the height-adjustable device can be effortlessly and exactly positioned in height without exerting increased force to overcome the force of gravity and will remain in this position that has been set. A typical area of employment for such weight compensation devices occurs in the field of medical-technical devices, such as x-radiators, etc., which are often secured in the x-ray room via a ceiling mount and that must be freely positionable in all three spatial directions with the assistance of the ceiling mount and must additionally be pivotable around a vertical and/or horizontal swiveling axis.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,065,705, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference thereto and which claims priority from German 197 47 393, shows an example of such an x-radiator suspended in a ceiling mount. The ceiling mount is composed of what is referred to as a telescope carriage that is displaceable along a bridge mounted underneath the ceiling of the x-ray room. In order to achieve the two-dimensional adjustment, the bridge is seated at corresponding suspensions in the room movable transversely to the motion direction of the telescope carriage. At its underside, the telescope carriage comprises a telescoping column at whose lower end the x-radiator is, in turn, suspended. Pivotable around the telescoping column, the x-radiator is secured to the telescoping column by means of a support mount. The telescope carriage includes a weight compensation device, wherein the cable drum is situated inside the telescope carriage and a carrying cable proceeds downward through the telescoping column proceeding from the cable drum. The cable drum is loaded by a coil spring arranged inside the cable drum that will exert a force on the cable drum that opposes the weight of the x-radiator device and mount.
The x-radiator is also connected via various lines in a standard way to other devices belonging to the x-ray apparatus. For example, an x-ray generator supplies the x-radiator with a high voltage via a high-voltage line. Over and above this, the x-radiator is connected, for example, to control signal or data lines by which data and control signals can be exchanged between other components of the x-ray apparatus and the x-radiator. These various lines are combined inside a hose, for example a ribbed or corrugated hose, that is conducted upward from the terminal location of the x-radiator to the telescoping carriage and proceeds from the latter via the bridge to a terminal location in the room or, respectively, to the other devices. Such lines shall be referred to as supply lines hereinafter, regardless of whether they are a matter of a hose with a plurality of separate lines located therein, of electrical lines or, for example, of compressed air, gas, water and/or hydraulic lines, and regardless of the exact function of these lines.
One problem with such a height-adjustable device with supply lines brought in from above is that the supply lines must be dimensioned with respect to their length so that the maximum lowering in a vertical direction is not negatively affected. This, in turn, has the disadvantage that the supply lines are too long in and of themselves when the device is in the upper position and hang into the working area and, thus, limit the user-friendliness of the device, especially given a very high working position of the device, for example, given only a very slight extension of the telescoping column of the ceiling mount. In the extreme case, swiveling around the vertical axis can even be greatly impeded by the dangling supply line. This problem is necessarily all the more pronounced the greater the height adjustment range of the device.